


Thutratur

by Blue_Sparkle



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Constellations, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Post-Quest, Stars, The Fall of Erebor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 18:30:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20679977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Sparkle/pseuds/Blue_Sparkle
Summary: Without a mountain over his head Nori grew up with the stars above him. Good thing he's quite fond of them then.





	Thutratur

**Author's Note:**

> Happy 100 works on AO3 to me~
> 
> I know some of them are translations and collaborations where I'm the artist and not the writer, but still. People have been sticking around and reading my things since 2012, so thank you. Let me celebrate with my two favourite things, Nori and Stars.

“You know, there’s some good things that came with the dragon and all that business.”

Dwalin turned his head somewhere on his right, and Nori didn’t need to look over to know there was an incredulous glare he being thrown his way. He ignored it, his head pillowed on his arm and a blanket thrown over him.

It was peaceful this night, with a few outcrops of trees providing some shelter but not thick enough to let anything bigger than a squirrel or very ambitious fox hide in them. In the distance the wind moved the grass and the ponies slept peacefully as Bifur and Glóin kept watch near the fire. A few sparks flew up from the flames and joined the sky above, mingling with the stars and the sickle of the moon.

“What good could possibly have come from that damn worm?” Dwalin grunted.

Their bedrolls had gradually shifted closer and closer over the weeks, especially when everyone else was scattered about and used the opportunity of free space to not lie shoulder to shoulder. They remained close. Nori just had to reach out to touch Dwalin’s hand and twine their fingers together.

He didn’t.

Instead he reached up and traced familiar constellations in the sky. The ladle was right above them, though he also knew those who called it a chariot in the far east, and those who said it was a great lumbering bear up north. It was always the same shape though, so perhaps names didn’t matter that much.

“You wouldn’t really get to see the stars as much if we still had the mountain, yeah? Even back in Ered Luin half the ceiling was gone and you saw them.”

Dwalin thought about this for a moment.

“Suppose it’s a fine sight. You get a bit sick of it if you have to keep staring up without shelter and in the cold without knowing next time you have good stone over your head.”

Nori hummed and dropped his hand back down. He didn’t dare look over, emotion clogging his throat.

“Ma told me about the constellations the Maker gave us,” he said.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Told me about Durin’s crown and all that. Said that’s how the Maker showed Durin that she’s meant to be king and so on.”

“One of the better stories. Don’t know that many about stars.”

“Know what I told her when she told me this story?” Nori said with a grin, pushing down the emotions back where they belonged.

“What?”

“I said I’ll steal those stars and be the best thief with the best crown to prove it!”

Dwalin let out an annoyed huff and Nori laughed at him. He glanced over to see Dwalin roll up in his blanket as he grumbled something unintelligible.

With a smirk Nori looked back up into the stars and told himself the old stories again.

*

Nori hadn’t seen the dragon, but he had seen the fire and the smoke following it. He’d witnessed screams and panic as everyone grabbed what little they could down in the fabric crafters’ district. He’d been at home, and he remembered Dori’s blind panic as he looked for their mother in the chaos. Thankfully she had been nearby, or else Nori was sure his brother might have tried looking for her until it was too late.

He knew, deep in his heart, that this was a calamity of a kind no Dwarf had witnessed in Ages. Ever, perhaps.

Too tiny to run and keep up he’d been carried out of the mountain by his mother, and he wept as soot and fire bright hair clung to his wet cheeks. He didn’t choke on the smoke, face pressed against his mother’s shawl, but the stench still clung to him.

Nori had once learned what a volcano was, with pictures, as somebody, he couldn’t remember who, taught the young children what kind of gems and stones could be found there, and what minerals could be used for dyes. Nori had been so little then, he had only cared for the picture of a mountain spitting fire and smoke.

The day Erebor was lost looked just like that.

It was the worst day of Nori’s not very long life, the worst in the not even three decades he’d been alive for. That night everyone was gathered around in shocked and terrified little groups, sharing what little food and shelter they had. Blankets were handed around and somebody took pity on Kori with her two young children and gave them an extra portion of food.

Nori was so very scared and tired but he couldn’t stop crying at all. It wasn’t the wail of despair or the sobs of a tired child, instead the tears just rolled over his cheeks, creating pale streaks in the ash clinging to them. His shoulders would occasionally shake with his sobs but he tried very hard not to sniff too much.

After a while Kori pulled him into her lap and ran her hands through his messy braid.

“Oh my little magpie, don’t cry. It’s alright, thutratur.”

Nori rubbed at his cheeks with his sleeve, and it really showed how difficult the day had been when he wasn’t gently scolded for doing so.

“Thutratur?” he asked with a small voice. His mother had never called him that before.

“My little star,” she explained. Despite the exhaustion on her face she smiled with the same sweetness as always as pointed up. “Do you know how stars were made, Nori?”

“Mahal created them from the sparks of his mighty hammer, in his forge,” Nori said quickly. Everybody knew that story.

He followed his mother’s finger and nearly gasped at the sight above. Not once had he tried to look up since the sun set, and even then he’d been too scared of the dragon coming back to care about stars.

“There’s so many,” he whispered, and his mother laughed.

“Well of course! The Maker has a lot of things to smith after all.”

“What’s that one,” he asked, pointing at the giant messy stripe of light and spots towards the horizon.

“That’s the bright path, or the milky path. It guides Dwarves to Mahal’s Halls.”

“And this one?”

Kori traced a shape in the sky above them.

“That’s the ladle. It belonged to a troll who very much wants to cook a soup, but a clever raven took it away. So now he can’t cook as he is always looking for his ladle on the ground.”

Nori laughed, his troubles and exhaustion forgotten for a moment.

“And that?”

“This one belongs to the jeweller’s scales. See those two stars? Yes those. They are the most accurate scales in the whole wide world. They can even measure the worth of half a sand corn precisely.”

Nori relaxed against his mother’s hold as she quietly told him tales of each and every star he pointed at, never once faltering in her tales. Nori memorized them all, especially when his mother said that they barely ever changed at all.

He didn’t realize that he was falling asleep, not even when his mother whispered “Sleep now, thutratur, tomorrow will be a better day.”

It wasn’t, in the end, but as Nori drifted off to sleep under the open sky for the first time in his life, he really did feel like it would be.

*

Nori sat at his very own vanity and stared into the polished mirror, hand idly toying with a strand of his hair. His robe was finely woven material and his vanity was an actual piece of solid furniture, and not just a small desk with a wobbly leg and a small hand mirror propped up. He had a big room with a bed built into actual stone, to share with his husband, in his very own house deep in the mountain.

It’s been a year since they had moved in here, and it still felt strange that he had all that now. That he was a hero. That he was rich.

He parted his hair and then brushed it out with a hand again, unsure whether he wanted to braid his hair in any special way today or not. That’s what people did for anniversaries, right?

The door creaked open and Nori only stiffened for half a second before relaxing again. Old habits died hard, and he’d had a lifetime of brothers shuffling into his room and then other thieves to watch out for. His husband was an exception to being cautious around.

“Thought you’d be home for lunch,” Nori said with a raised eyebrow as Dwalin stepped up to him and bowed to kiss the top of his head. He preened under the attention. “You’re early.”

“Good thing you’re not done with your hair,” Dwalin said with a smirk, immediately catching on to the predicament Nori was in. He was married to a noble now, of course he could show off with complicated braids, of course there were too many to chose from! “I’ve got something you will want to adjust your style for.”

Nori saw Dwalin reach into his pocket through the reflection, and then a jewellery box was opened and Dwalin gently placed something on his head. It was tiny circlet, made from very pale nearly white gold, and silver chains dipping into Nori’s hair and over his forehead. Seven perfectly white gems were set into it.

“Pretty,” Nori whispered, torn between picking it up to examine the make closely and keeping it in his hair to admire how it looked on him. It sparkled nicely when he moved his head even just a little, and he would certainly catch everyone’s eye like that. Dwalin would never give him anything less than perfect, so he kept it on for now. 

“Happy anniversary,” Dwalin said, swelling up with pride as he admired Nori’s reflection, as he seemed very proud of his ability to pick out good gifts. “I had them fashion it after Durin’s Crown.”

Nori stared at the circlet for a few moments before he realized that the gems were positioned just as the constellation of stars was.

“Now you have your own. And you didn’t even need to steal it.”

Nori’s eyes widened and he fought back the burn of tears threatening to fall. He swallowed and smiled, barely able to hide how genuine and in love it looked. He quickly turned away from the mirror to look up at Dwalin instead.

“I think it still counts. Had to steal a guard’s heart to get it, is all.”

Dwalin growled, but he was smiling, and he leaned down to give Nori a proper kiss.

Nori melted into it, and he knew his days would only ever get better from now on.


End file.
